Cannes Palme D'or Winner 'Parasite' Gets U.S. Release For October

Another Bong Joon-ho hit is coming to the United States. Fresh off his historic Palme D'Or win at the Cannes Film Festival — the first win for a South Korean filmmaker — Bong's acclaimed black comedy Parasite has set its U.S. release. Stateside distributor NEON has set the Parasite US release for October 2019, just in time for awards season.

NEON announced that Parasite will be released in Los Angeles and New York on October 11, 2019 and will receive a "traditional arthouse platform release." This likely means a limited theatrical run with a potential to expand should the South Korean black comedy prove a hit with audiences or a major awards season contender — which the October release date definitely positions the film as.

Parasite was the runaway favorite of the Cannes Film Festival, earning accolades for Bong, whose rise from genre director behind the cult monster movie The Host to globally renowned auteur is absolutely thrilling. The film won the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, a first for the entire country of South Korea, which is astonishing considering the prestige that Korean films have started to earn in recent years.

But could Parasite make history Stateside by becoming the first Korean film to earn a Best International Feature Oscar nod? It's totally possible, based on the rave review written by /Film reviewer Jason Gorber, who called Parasite "a pleasure, a film that unabashedly takes the audience along for a twisty, twisted ride and gets under your skin. With mind-warping shifts in tone and storyline, there's a feeling that you're getting more bang from Bong than in a dozen lesser films. It's a mighty work from a mighty director, and a master who schools the world on how a film like this can be so deftly pulled off."

Parasite stars frequent Bong collaborator Song Kang-ho (The Host, Snowpiercer), as well as Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik and Park So-dam.

Here is the synopsis for Parasite:

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide "indispensable" luxury services while the Parks give the Kims a way out of their shabby circumstances. But this new ecosystem is fragile, and soon enough greed and class prejudice threaten to upend the Kims' newfound comfort.